Savage Gamma World #3

Kong faces off against Furwall

Leaving the airship in the hands of Joe and his villagers, our mutants (see PC profiles here) decided to travel to Dawnsville to attend the wrestling tournament that had been advertised across the zone - the winner would receive a prize of a hundred bullets, and be given a position as an officer in the Army of Dawn, which they hoped would allow them to learn the whereabouts of their friend Mary Juna, who had been sold as a slave.

After four days of travel, our mutants arrived at Dawnsville, a small town surrounded by a palisade wall. As they approached the gate, they saw three bodies hanging from a gallows - two of the victims had a sign with the word "Thief" hung around their neck, while the third had a sign with the word "Psionic" around his neck. Posters on the walls announced that all thieves and psionics found in Dawnsville would be executed.

(map from Kickstarter)

Our mutants made it past the Dawn soldiers at the gate after announcing that Kong - using the assumed name of Long the Great - was there to take part in the wrestling tournament. Immediately the party was spotted by the mutant Jinnie, who volunteered to be Kong's manager for a cut of 20% of the purse. The party agreed, and were led to the sign-up area, where Kong was made to arm-wrestle the house champion The Grey Death, a cyborg. Kong, his strength restored after his dip in the sacred pool, defeated The Grey Death, who smashed the table in a fit of rage and left. Kong was in.

Jinnie led the party past the market area, where free stew was being offered to all the inhabitants of the zone who had traveled to Dawnsville to see the tournament. Kong recognised the smell of the free stew as that which had been fed to him while he was prisoner in Battenburg's Trading Post, which turned him gravely ill, and the party wisely decided to pay for some hotdogs with their own money instead.

The party took up bunks in the free hostel set up for visitors, and decided to browse the stalls at the marketplace. There they were approached by Polly Pockett, a reporter for the Dawnsville Gazette. During the interview, Batte sensed that Polly was trying to read Kong's mind - she was a psionic!

The next morning, the party made their way to spy on Polly at her office, and found that she was conspiring with Mr Bones, one of the participants of the tournament, to help the latter win.

That evening the first round of the wrestle tournament took place at the arena set up just for the event - a hemispherical steel cage sixty feet across at the base. The event was attended by hundred of visitors from all over the zone, and the leader of Dawnsville and the Army of Dawn, Colonel Sari, who watched the proceedings from a dais, flanked by guards.

The opening match saw Kong fight John "the lodestone" Dwayneson, a rock organism with regenerative power. Kong was close to losing the match when Batte intervened, using his Fear Generation power to cause John to abandon the fight. Fortunately for the party, Batte's use of psionic power was not detected.

The next match-up saw Mr Bones, a slim and quick humanoid defeat the boar mutant Swine of the Wild, who seemed to be confused by the former's movements... but the party noticed that Polly was standing near the ring...

Then came Furwall, a four-armed mutant gorilla who, after some initial difficulty, managed to seize her opponent The Zone Tornado with one pair of her hands, then proceed to pummel him with her other pair of hands into submission.

Finally, the house champion The Grey Death came on and easily demolished Delta Max, a droid.

The second day of the match saw Kong pitted against Furwall. As the bell sounded, Furwall leapt forward and quickly seized Kong with her hands... and then the two apes felt an attraction to each other as simian pheromones kicked in. Kong whispered to Furwall to let him win the match, but Furwall was too proud to throw the match; instead, she knocked Kong out with a single blow and ended the fight.

After Kong was carried out of the cage, The Grey Death and Mr Bones entered the ring. Despite his strength and power, The Grey Death was unable to grab hold of the nimble Mr Bones. Then suddenly, Batte felt a piercing headache just as Colonel Sari shouted: there is a psionic among us - find him!

Dawn soldiers entered the cage and arrested Mr Bones, and soon afterwards Polly was arrested too as she tried to flee. The pair was taken to a large metal sphere - an disused LPG storage tank - and lowered into it.

The next morning, it was announced that Polly Pockett and Mr Bones were psionics who had conspired to cheat in the tournament, and would be executed by hanging as a pre-game entertainment that evening.

That same morning, while Kong was resting from his injury at the hostel, he was invited to meet with Colonel Sari. Kong and Vik followed the Dawn soldiers to a water tower that had been repurposed as an office for Colonel Sari and her staff. Here, Kong was offered a position as an officer in the Army of Dawn, which he accepted. Colonel Sari then informed him that he would accompany her to "the bunker" the next day for his induction to the army. Kong asked if Furwall would also be offered a position in the army if she won the finals that evening; Colonel Sari smiled and replied that that would not happen.

Kong and Vik returned to his companions, and the party decided to visit Furwall and warn her that foul play was afoot. Arriving at her shed, they were met at the door by Baccarat, her mutant chimpanzee manager. After receiving assurance from the party that they were not in league with the Army of Dawn, Baccarat admitted them and informed them that he and Furwall had been asked by agents of Colonel Sari to throw the fight that evening or face... consequences. The duo were reluctant to throw the fight out of ape pride, but at the same time they feared for their own safety after the fight.

With Kong's new love interest in danger, our mutants decided they needed a new plan. Reasoning that Polly would have some insider information on Dawnsville and that she had little love for the Army, they decided to rescue her and Mr Bones before the fight in a dramatic fashion, and then flee Dawnsville with Furwall and Baccarat in the ensuing chaos...

Prepping and Running the Game

This was the first session of the campaign where I had all four players at the table.

The plot was based pretty much as per the module, but I had a lot of fun improvising NPCs as the players wandered around Dawnsville, doing shopping and sticking their noses into places. They also made a game out of betting on the outcomes of the fight - the module actually gives you the bookkeeper's odds for the match-ups, which makes it easy for the GM.

This part of the campaign was pretty sandboxy, but easy to run as the module provided a very well-drawn map of Dawnsville, descriptions of the areas of interest, as well as details about the NPCs. There were also events which the GM could trigger if the players were not proactively pursuing their own course of action.

I started the session with no idea of how it would end, but I am pleased with how it turned out and I am looking forward to the finale session next week.